North Carolina State Parks

North Carolina's state parks system is dedicated to conservation of natural resources, to outdoor recreation and environmental education. Managed by the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, it encompasses 41 state parks and state recreation areas, as well as 33 undeveloped conservation areas, ranging from mountains to piedmont to coast.

Hanging Rock artifact prompts a history contest

Last week, Park Superintendent Robin Kalish was working with maintenance staff deep in the woods at Hanging Rock State Park when she stumbled upon a very large and rusty thing – not an unusual occurrence whenever rambling around the countryside in North Carolina. When the staff had time, they cleaned the thing of leaves and debris and posted a photo to Facebook looking for anyone who could identify it.

Some experts were able to identify it for Kalish, and it turns out the thing has quite the historic value. But she’s not saying (publicly). Instead, she made a contest of it, asking park visitors to enter a ballot guessing what it is and (more importantly) why it could be found in this particular state park. The contest lasts through April and the winner will receive a night of free camping.

It’ll help if visitors keep in mind the interesting history of Hanging Rock State Park. In fact, most of North Carolina’s state parks offer fascinating tidbits of local history, intriguing stories that are told in the parks’ visitor centers. It should be no surprise that some of the most interesting natural features of the state also come with interesting history.

Darren Hickerson

According to the name on the image file its a Haro firereel. Is that cheating? I’ll go out on a limb and say either it was stored here as part of a fire lookout due to the elevated geography, or it was here as a way to avoid tragic fire loss of a moonshine operation.